Which watch do you own

This is a discussion on Which watch do you own within Shifting gears, part of the Around the Corner category; Originally Posted by sridhu
Hey same-pinch! I have the exact same watch too.
How do you find the kinetic? Have ...

Hey same-pinch! I have the exact same watch too.
How do you find the kinetic? Have the Seiko automatic but something stops me from buying a kinetic.

Hey Sridhu, hearing that phrase after a really loong time. Takes me back to my school days
Well, my Kinetic is a very light watch, as its body and strap are made of titanium. Sometimes I don't even feel it on my wrist, especially after having worn the Eco-Drive, which is pretty heavy. I had no complaints about its performance for so many years, though its charge-holding capacity did reduce over the years. In the beginning it would hold a full charge for at least 20 days, but for the last few years it wouldn't hold it for more than a few hours, so I would have to wear it continuously if I didn't want to keep resetting the date and time. If you want to wear it as your primary watch its a good, no-nonsense timepiece. My model has just a date window on an otherwise clean face. I don't have any pics to show here since its with the repairers at the moment.
I had veered towards both these watches along with the general awareness of batteries polluting the earth and feel good that I haven't had to replace any cells since the time I bought them.
Here are two more watches I have. One gifted to me about 3-4 years ago, never worn, and the other bequeathed by my grandad. This must be over 50 years old and still works fine. The strap is a cheap one, to replace the leather one that had become brittle and tore. You can guess which is which.

Thought i'd also post a Pic of all the 3 watches that i now own. No big shot watches compared to what some of you have. But just the transformation of how first i started with a Fastrack few years ago, moved on to a Timex and now to a Fossil...

Fossil has paid "homage" to the Omega Moonwatch with this model, the looks are very similar.. well maybe not exactly the same placement of dials or shape of hands or bracelet but from a distance pretty much they are like twins. Fossil is good value for its price and can tick reliably for a few years like all quartz watches do.

For anyone who loves watches and more specifically mechanical watches, here is one that in my eyes is the best watch to ever be made from A.Lange & Sohne, its totally in-house made but the movements have input from JLC & IWC for certain parts as they are sister brands.

The TerraLuna with separate dials for hours, minutes and seconds in the front, also a perpetual calendar featuring a large date window at 12, a day and month window at 4 & 8 positions. The rear contains an orbital moon-phase mechanism powered by the movement barrel showing the earth and the stars seen around it in exact position with the moon disc rotating around the earth and eclipsing when aligned with the sun (acting as the balance wheel in this case). The movement features a 14 day power reserve and a power reserve indicator can be seen on the watch face below denoting the exact number of days left before needing another wind. All this is encased in a pure rose-gold case, the pin-buckle, the hands and date window are rose-gold as well. A marvel of engineering, a true testament of human ability. Smart-watches have nothing on this. This watch blows away every Rolex (the so called most recognised watch brand on earth) to ashes.

Folks needs some inputs from you all. I have planned to gift a watch to my co brother. Budget is in the range of 5-7k. Can you please provide me any suggestions? I stay in Bangalore and would want to buy it from a store and not online. It would be helpful if you can suggest some good store to buy as well.

Budget is in the range of 5-7k. Can you please provide me any suggestions?

I cannot suggest a particular style or shape of watch since its all down to individual preferences, so you need to do the guesswork on what the giftee would prefer. What I can suggest though, is that its better to buy quartz (battery operated) than manual/auto winding since its a gift. A stainless steel bracelet will also stand the test of time and avoid plated-gold or finished gold if possible since those will rub or chip off over time and give a terrible look.

At the given budget I'd say you will have a choice of designer brands if you search the Helios website. If you want to go desi then the usual answer will be Titan. All of them should last 4-5 years without much problem I'd suppose, though I'd suggest to purchase from Helios as the last resort.. they really are terrible in knowledge, marketing and keep scuffed timepieces. TATA may have been around in the timekeeping business for long but I wouldn't touch them with a 100 feet pole (Helios belongs to them as well). Ethos is one more alternative but they're higher end so not sure if they'll keep ones under 10k mark.

Go through both of these retailers websites based on budget and decide accordingly. At that budget 100% reliability cannot be expected from most brands. Brands like Citizen or Seiko will cost 3-4k more than the budget but will be far more reliable.

Folks needs some inputs from you all. I have planned to gift a watch to my co brother. Budget is in the range of 5-7k. Can you please provide me any suggestions?

Since I am partial to automatics, my choice would be one of the lower-end Seiko automatics from Ethos. However the dampener is that it costs 9-10K according to the Ethos website. The watch should last a lifetime if handled properly.

Folks needs some inputs from you all. I have planned to gift a watch to my co brother. Budget is in the range of 5-7k. Can you please provide me any suggestions? I stay in Bangalore and would want to buy it from a store and not online. It would be helpful if you can suggest some good store to buy as well.

My step by step approach would be as follows,

a. Automatics of good repute such as Seiko, Omega, etc would be out of budget - so stick to quartz.

b. Getting most for the buck - So go for MFD with chronograph / tachymeter rather than the bare basic ones with just the function of showing Hour, Minutes and Seconds.

c. MFD Quartz watches from brands such as Tissot, Citizen, Ulysse Nardin, Emporio Armani etc would fall out of budget. Rolex, Rado, Cartier etc., are out of question. - So stick to budget brands such as Timex, Titan, Casio, Fossil, Omega, etc.

d. Other brands such as Police, Helios etc., are managed by Titan and Ors for service support and can be better choice. (Tommy Hilfiger, FCUK etc are sub brands of Helios and managed by Titan for service support in India)

So all in all, explore possibilities to strike a deal for a MFD watch model from brands like Police, Diesel, Swatch, Omega, Timex, Tag Heuer, Giordano, Tommy Hilfigher and Casio that suits your preferences and tastes.

There is nothing wrong in buying products online. However products on sale from third party vendors especially where big ticket products like Emporio Armani, Giordano, Tissot etc (that are generally 20k plus) are offered at substantially cheaper prices (say 3k to 5k) and with sellers warranty alone. They could be in all possibility counterfeit products, stolen or refurbished.

Although this was a gift from wife and I was initially sceptical about the need for any sort of smartness in a watch- upon further usage I do love the fact that it is a watch that has inbuilt smartness, rather than a smart device in the shape of a wearable watch.

Below are all the different dials offered by Titan in one watch, ranging from elegant to funky, boring to sporty and analog to digital.

Folks needs some inputs from you all. I have planned to gift a watch to my co brother. Budget is in the range of 5-7k. Can you please provide me any suggestions? I stay in Bangalore and would want to buy it from a store and not online. It would be helpful if you can suggest some good store to buy as well.

Check out Fossil\Giordano\Diesel\Police\Titan etc - if you are particular about B&M stores, head out to any of the shopping malls - most of the shopping malls now have watch stores with good collection. You can also check out pantaloons\Shoppers Stop\Central etc - they also carry a good budget collection.

Quote:

Originally Posted by King_pin09

So all in all, explore possibilities to strike a deal for a MFD watch model from brands like Police, Diesel, Swatch, Omega, Timex, Tag Heuer, Giordano, Tommy Hilfigher and Casio that suits your preferences and tastes.

Mate - hook me up with those who sell Omega and Tag Heuer at sub 10K prices please

Has anyone bought the G shock steel series yet? I saw it for the first time at lifestyle and man i loved it! Looking at the pictures i wasn't very sure of the price being justified at 16,000rs, But the built quality was top notch! Planning to pick one up in a couple of weeks time.

So all in all, explore possibilities to strike a deal for a MFD watch model from brands like Police, Diesel, Swatch, Omega, Timex, Tag Heuer, Giordano, Tommy Hilfigher and Casio that suits your preferences and tastes.

Your post is a bit confusing, how can OP get a Tag Heuer if he increases his budget by 1k-2k? Tags start at 70k minus discounts. He would also manage to get Seiko Automatics at under twice his budget which is fair.

Secondly, how did Ulysse Nardin fall in the class of Armani, Citizen and Tissot? The latter 3 can be very much had for about 12-15k or lesser (quartz models) whereas Ulysse Nardin is part of Historic Maisons, a world's top tier classification of about 25 brands, they are ridiculously overpriced as well even amongst the competition and I don't think they make quartz anymore.

While I agree that Omega & TAG are hyped and do not deserve a slot anywhere in the Haute Horlogerie classification, they still punch well above the prestige and pricing class you've slotted them in.

I cannot suggest a particular style or shape of watch since its all down to individual preferences, so you need to do the guesswork on what the giftee would prefer. Brands like Citizen or Seiko will cost 3-4k more than the budget but will be far more reliable.

Thanks darkknight for the suggestion. I am partial towards citizen as I like their ecodrive watches.

Quote:

Originally Posted by nowwhat?

Since I am partial to automatics, my choice would be one of the lower-end Seiko automatics from Ethos.

Thanks nowwhat. I am infact looking for an automatic only.

Quote:

Originally Posted by King_pin09

So all in all, explore possibilities to strike a deal for a MFD watch model from brands like Police, Diesel, Swatch, Omega, Timex, Tag Heuer, Giordano, Tommy Hilfigher and Casio that suits your preferences and tastes.

King, thanks for your suggestion but as others have mentioned some of the brands that you have mentioned would be way out of my budget. I am sure you have missed to see the budget that I have in mind.

Quote:

Originally Posted by theexperthand

Check out Fossil\Giordano\Diesel\Police\Titan etc - if you are particular about B&M stores, head out to any of the shopping malls - most of the shopping malls now have watch stores with good collection. You can also check out pantaloons\Shoppers Stop\Central etc - they also carry a good budget collection.

Yeah I am planning to do that as soon as I get the time to go there. Its been a hectic couple of weeks for me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dark.knight

Your post is a bit confusing, how can OP get a Tag Heuer if he increases his budget by 1k-2k? Tags start at 70k minus discounts. He would also manage to get Seiko Automatics at under twice his budget which is fair.

I am sure he has missed reading the budget that I had mentioned.

So to update last week I had went for some shopping near jayanagar and visited citizen and titan showrooms. I did like one model in citizen which is around 7k but planned to check few more before buying.